News

Greg’s new book The Short History of Global Cities was released at a public launch at Brookings Institution in Washington DC on September 27th 2016, at an event chaired by Financial Times columnist Edward Luce.

Greg’s latest book provides a bite-size introduction to the 4,000 year history and present of global cities, identifying the enduring attributes and enablers of these cities – trade, connectivity, discovery, innovation, diverse entrepreneurship, and geopolitical opportunity. Ranging from Alexandria to the Aztec cities, from San Francisco to Singapore, the book reveals the factors that have made cities ‘global’, and the ingredients that have allowed some to endure while others fade. The book also looks ahead to the future, examining the new drivers that are transforming cities around the world, and the emerging challenges that global cities will face.

The Short History of Global Cities is available on Amazon (paperback and Kindle) here and the publishers page can be found here.

UCL Honorary Professor Greg Clark CBE has been made a Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences for his role as a leading global authority on cities and his engagement in strategic urban developments across the world.

In this 60 minute podcast, Greg and Tim discuss the past and present contexts for world cities, different national approaches to their systems of cities, ways to combine national and metropolitan approaches to cities, and what the future of urbanisation may hold.

At the Brookings 2016 Global Cities Summit in Washington, DC, Greg moderated a panel of city leaders including Mayor of Atlanta Kasim Reed, Stockholm Chamber CEO Maria Rankka, Andrew Boraine CEO of the Western Cape Economic Development Partnership, and General Raymond Odierno, Former Chief of Staff of the U.S. Army and Senior Advisor at JPMorgan Chase. The debate focused on the new kinds of leadership challenge, the imperative of inclusive growth, and the mechanisms to promote and organise positive joint action between the public and private sectors in cities

Greg is interviewed on Brisbane radio station 612 ABC about the city’s prospects as a ‘new world city’, and the lessons that can be learnt from other cities that have embarked on a similar process of change. Click image to download interview.

In partnership with the World Bank Institute, OECD and UCL City Leadership Institute, The Business of Cities has authored a new report on city leadership. This paper looks at how leadership teams can be built and run to enable cities to move beyond their governance deficits. On the basis of a series of case studies, interviews with city leaders and a review of existing literature, the report identifies two key ingredients in the creation of efficient city leadership. First it highlights that leaders need to be accomplished innovators, coming up with fresh ways of meeting the challenges their cities face. Second, the paper emphasises the importance of building a shared system of leadership, in which all different elements of the broad system of city governance can work together to secure better urban futures.”